Morales said he learned about wastewater systems from the bottom up. He added that he thought Jones knew what to do because he had a license.

The council took notice that on March 25, Jones applied for a street position with the city and wrote on his application the reason for leaving the wastewater system was because he “was not qualified.”

“Howard, I’ve learned that anything you do, you have to study,” said Councilman Dale Skrobarcek.

Councilman Lenny Anzaldua said he felt like the council was a “little at fault,” acknowledging it knew about the faulty DO. But he said he was leaning toward termination.

Frank Hosey pointed out that Morales had only been on the job for a little more than two months while Jones had been there more than a year.

Morales pointed out that Jones has a license, and he figured Jones knew what he was doing.

“Do you have any fault in this?” asked Watts of Jones.

She noted Jones blamed a former supervisor and equipment for the citations.

“Do you take any responsibility?” Skrobarcek asked.

Jones said he did the best he could do at maintenance and record keeping.

“You should have taken responsibility and said ‘No, I ain’t going to do it (average numbers),” Skrobarcek said.

“Yeah, there’s some fault in there from me, but I’m not going to take the whole barrel of it,” Jones said.

Skrobarcek made the motion to terminate Jones. Watts seconded.

Skrobarcek, Watts and Anzaldua voted to terminate while Hosey and Dukes abstained from the vote.

The TCEQ issues included these violations:

1. Failed to report any permitted exceedance by more than 40 percent in writing within five days.

2. Failed to submit quarterly report by the 15th and include provisions of the permit.

3. Failed to submit a complete copy of the annual sludge report as per permit.

4. Failed to monitor PH within 15 minutes and correctly sample for chlorine.

5. Failed to maintain adequate monitoring records to include sampler, times and more.

6. Failed to properly operate the plant.

7. Failed to maintain a chlorine residual in the effluent.

8. Failed to prevent the discharge of solids at the outfall. Need to remove all solids as soon as possible and provide notification.

Mayor Joey Heard said Wilco was helping clean up the discharge currently at the creek. Morales added that they have been cleaning up the discarge for three days.